1. Meet Bert Kaminski
Speaker at ACI’s
Produced by:
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2. Mr. Kaminski is graduate of New York University with a B.A. degree in
Economics, and a graduate of Fordham University’s joint J.D./M.B.A
program. He is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bars.
Mr. Bert Kaminski
Assistant General Counsel
Oracle USA, Inc.
Bert Kaminski is a member of Oracle’s North America Legal
Department, and is the lead attorney globally for Oracle’s cloud
computing, software-as-a-service, outsourcing, and information
technology managed services businesses. Mr. Kaminski advises all
levels of business and executive management on a broad range of
technology-related legal issues, structures and negotiates complex IT
licensing and services transactions, and assists with the development
of global corporate practices for various lines of business.
Prior to joining Oracle in 2000, Mr. Kaminski was associated with
Rosenman & Colin (now Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP) in New York
City.
Mr. Kaminski is a member of the board of directors of the New Jersey
Corporate Counsel Association, and is co-chair of its Technology Law
Committee.
Tell us about yourself.
I’m a native New Yorker, having lived, worked and been educated in
and around New York City for most of my life. I like to be active in my
spare time, such as playing with my tennis group every weekend,
running in local 5K races, and hiking and biking with the kids locally and
in national parks during family vacations. My family and I make it a
point to visit some of the world’s natural wonders, having in recent
years been to the Yellowstone, Denali, Grand Canyon and Yosemite
national parks, as well as the Austrian and Italian Alps. One of my
favorite recent destinations was Halong Bay in Vietnam. This summer I
enjoyed playing a mix of classical, jazz and rock with a guitar
ensemble. Occasionally I will stay seated and read a book, having
recently finished Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.
What is a day like in your field?
I manage a team of attorneys across the United States that specializes
in cloud computing. We counsel all levels of Oracle executive
management, product development, sales and business operations on a
broad range of cloud related information technology and business law
matters. The team supports everything from the negotiation of
commercial transactions, to the preparation of cloud computing
related contract and policy templates, to helping senior
management develop global business practices for cloud
computing.
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3. Privacy and security issues are some of the hot topics that we encounter
in our practice area.
What do you like about working at your company?
Oracle is a highly dynamic company, which means that my in-house
legal practice is similarly in a state of continual change and growth.
Although already one of the largest technology companies in the world,
not a month goes by without Oracle adding to its broad portfolio of
enterprise software, hardware, cloud and professional service offerings,
especially in the areas of software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-aservice (PaaS), and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). As the lead
attorney globally for Oracle’s cloud computing businesses, this highly
dynamic change and growth is what I like best about working at the
company.
What would you change in the industry?
Although the cloud computing industry is still in its early years,
companies are rapidly adopting cloud as part of their information
technology strategies. But as more companies move beyond their initial,
limited cloud deployments to implement a wider variety of services from
a number of cloud providers, cloud integration is posing an increasing
business challenge. Recent studies indicate that some 40% of
companies rely on custom coding to integrate their various
cloud applications and another 33% simply do not integrate their cloud
platforms. The lack of greater integration capability among major cloud
offerings in the market can introduce significant complexity in cloud
deployments, and therefore may increase the level of legal and
contractual risk between cloud customers and their vendors. This
increased risk may involve contractual and liability issues regarding
service warranties, service level compliance, data security and
availability, regulatory compliance, and application integration, scalability
and upgrades. However, recent announcements of collaboration
between cloud vendors (such as between Oracle and Salesforce.com,
Microsoft and Netsuite) foretell a trend towards greater integration
capability and cross-cloud vendor support that will reduce complexity
and risk in the cloud industry.
What is the tip/best practice you would like to share with your
peers?
One practice tip I’d like to convey is that cloud computing is not IT
outsourcing. The major value proposition of cloud computing is that it
enables customers to access industry-leading technology and
innovation as a standardized service based on predefined platforms and
applications. This benefits cloud customers in a variety of ways, such
as through reduced IT complexity, lower upfront and total costs, rapid
implementation and deployment, greater elasticity and scalability, and
reduced requirements for operational and (if any) infrastructure
management. Although a cloud system is often highly configurable, it
generally consists of a common platform and infrastructure
that is shared across the cloud vendor’s customer base. The
standardized nature of cloud generally does not permit the
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4. service to be customized to meet individual requirements of any one
customer. Cloud contracts reflect the standardization of the service and
therefore are not normally as open for negotiation as may be the case
with a contract for IT outsourcing services. Contracts for IT outsourcing
services are often highly negotiated given that such services are
typically custom built solutions that are specifically designed to meet
unique customer requirements. If a prospective cloud customer is
seeking to purchase highly customized services under a heavily
negotiated contract, the customer may want to consider acquiring IT
outsourcing services instead of cloud, or consider acquiring a different
type of cloud service that is more suited to the customer’s needs. The
cloud industry offers a wide spectrum of choices for customers,
including a variety of public, private and hybrid clouds and mix of
software-, platform-, and infrastructure-as-a-service offerings.
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5. Bert Kaminski
Speaker at ACI’s 17th Annual
The Practical and Tactical Art of the Deal in Software
Agreements - Cloud, SaaS, Open Source & Licensing